It's been a while i posted here, i had the DacMagic when it came out and almost immediatly upgraded it internally and there was little improvement to be found. I also had a much more expensive Xindak DAC-8 after that wich was a beautiful component that also looked more expensive for it's price under 1000 euro and sounded very beautiful, especially for the midrange blossem. Still it lacked bass fundament in my system and therefore i sold it and kept the DacMagic as good bass is very important to me. I have experimeted with DAC's in CD players and receivers after that, also a highly regarded chinese MHZS CD88G CD player wich in certain circles get much respect. I thought i couldn't do better in this price range but i was wrong. Yes for it's price for abour 800 to 900 euro's the MHZS is better then some more higher price range gear with it's top loading mechanism cd transport and great DAC but when i read the review and forums of the small but well made looking Metrum acoustics Quad NOS mini DAC from the Netherlands i decided to order it, it's only 345 euro (was 299 euro when it came out) and in the review, the reviewer couldn't decide between this and it's much more expensive and modified reference DAC. When i got the DAC, straight out of the box it sounded smooth and allready better then my DacMagic, and after some burn in it really sounded balanced and a sense of cohesion that i didn't witnessed before in my system. This DAC in Quad form (there is also a cheaper Duo DAC to choose from) uses 4 DAC's, 2 per channel and becausse of the succes of this review and more then expected sales of this DAC they are developing a new Octave DAC wich uses 8 DAC's and a seperate power supply with a price between 700 to 800 euro dependent of wich power supply you get. Metrum acoustics clearly won me over and i don't have the urge to upgrade anymore as i know more expensive isn't always better, when i start listening to music i just can't drag myself to bed and turn the thing off! Great DAC for the money and certainly one to consider!! But you will need to find a way to not use USB as it is Only coax and optical in. The Website... http://www.metrum-acoustics.nl/hoofdpagina_engels.html